[SHORT CONTENT] Google Web Stories - Getting Started

[Kurt]

Google recently launched (relaunched) Google Web Stories to compete with Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat as a short content platform. They're looking for fast loading "short content" for mobile

The main difference from a marketing/business point of view is Stories will have Google's reach. If you can get your Story listed on Google, you don't need any friends or followers to get traffic. On the other hand, with the other sites you can build your own audiences with friends and followers and aren't totally dependent on how a search engine feels about your content.

If you aren't familiar with Stories, IMO they are really PowerPoint presentations/slide decks using HTML so they can be embedded directly into web pages and viewed in a web browser.

Slide decks/presentations are made of a collection of individual slides and Stories have individual pages. And like PPT slides, each page can have video, images, text, animations, etc.

Also, Stories last and aren't temporary whereas your posts on other social sites can only be available for a short time. This means a Google Story can bring traffic for a prolonged period of time..

You own the content and host it on your own site.

Google also allows you to link to web pages and ONE affiliate link per story. Just be sure to tag it as an affiliate link by including: (AFF) next to the link.

There's a number of ways to create Stories, but for most people the best way is probably to install a free Wordpress plugin that lets you create Google Stories in your browser.

Search for "Web Stories" in your WP admin plugin page or download it here:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/web-stories/  


Stories Official YouTube Channel - Google's Stories Channel has about 15-16 short 4-6 minute videos...be sure to check them out:
 
https://www.youtube.com/c/GoogleWebCreat...eb+Stories

Here's the Intro Video:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCcHkmzrIVY&t=1s

 
More Resources:

All You Need to Know About Google Web Stories
https://nozakconsulting.com/seo/all-you-...b-stories/

SEJournal [PODCAST] - Three SEO experts discuss Web Story optimization for Google Search and Discover.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/goog...st/388263/

Google Web Stories WordPress Plugin (Beta) for More Traffic
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/goog...es/373520/

[Claire Koch]

Wow amazing information Kurt light bolt moment here

Love it when you find something like this I feel like a kid in the
marketing playground.  Whoopie!!!!!

Now to put on my content hat and start coming up with some
creative stuff that can get my bizopp zooming as well as sell
some memberships online.

Never could imagine you could actually find one of these big
shots allowing a link.

Him blowing up my hate for them juat little. Very little lol

[Kurt]

Wow amazing information Kurt light bolt moment here

Love it when you find something like this I feel like a kid in the
marketing playground.  Whoopie!!!!!

Now to put on my content hat and start coming up with some
creative stuff that can get my bizopp zooming as well as sell
some memberships online.

Never could imagine you could actually find one of these big
shots allowing a link.

Him blowing up my hate for them juat little. Very little lol

I think Web Stories and YouTube Shorts are a great opportunity right now. I have a feeling that the door will close more quickly on these than other platforms have in the past.

Some gambles as I see them are:

• Shorts may be short-lived like many other Google experiments and an investment of time, money and effort may be wasted.
  
• Shorts may not bring results.
  
• If they can get results, you still have competition for those results.
  
• You have to learn new skills.
  
• And things I didn't think of...
  

However, I believe the "gain" is greater than the "risk". IMO the hardest part is just getting the ball rolling and shifting gears. This is probably the best and one and only time to have an advantage, which is simply to be early adaptors. We simply may not be able to gain traction in the future or it will be much harder.